The Rangers have problems more than decisions, and that was something coach Alain Vigneault was open to admit.
Following the preseason finale on Saturday night at the Prudential Center, a dreary 3-0 loss to the Devils, Vigneault remained bewildered concerning who to keep on his roster and who to let go in anticipation of the regular-season opener, this coming Thursday in St. Louis. And in hopes of having some players separate themselves from the pack, what Vigneault got instead were performances that left him scratching his head.
"You know what it was like?" he asked afterward. "It was like the last game of exhibition, that's what it was like."
The biggest problem has become how to fill the center position, where the loss of top pivot Derek Stepan to a broken left leg has created a domino effect more drastic than could have been imagined. It is a sentiment that Vigneault, in a glairing bit of honesty, confirmed.
"We've got issues in the middle right now," he said, shaking his head.
Vigneault said at some point on Sunday, he would get together with general manager Glen Sather, the rest of the management staff and the rest of the coaches, and make some hard decisions to be announced Monday. The first decision would be whether to put Stepan on long-term injured reserve, thus keeping him out for the first 10 games of the season, when the proposed timeline of four-to-six weeks could bring him back as early as the seventh game.
Vigneault said he is "leaning towards" the long-term list, thus temporarily clearing Stepan's $3.075 million salary-cap hit and enabling the coach to keep 14 forwards for the time being and help him "sort out" what is a very muddied picture.
"We have some possibilities," he said, "and they all depend on what we do with Step."
The issue at center was not helped by a mediocre game by Matt Lombardi, his first game since the preseason opener last Monday after suffering a groin injury. And if Lombardi might have been in the lead for that fourth center spot, he was outplayed on this night by Chris Mueller.
"I think everybody is trying their best," Vigneault said. "You can only give what you have. I think Mueller gave us a real honest effort. I thought Lombardi, for a guy that hadn't played in camp, tried his best tonight. We have to sort out if those guys help us, or if we're better off putting somebody else in the middle."
The experiment of Martin St. Louis switching to center was not ruled out, Vigneault said, even though it didn't work out extremely well in its first attempt Friday night.
It also hasn't been ruled out that 19-year-old winger Anthony Duclair might find his way onto the roster, even after what was his least impressive performance of the preseason and the contractual conundrum that keeping him would create. The organization is already at their 50-contract limit, so they would have to clear one – either by having someone get claimed on waivers or making a trade for no pro contract in return – in order to have Duclair play in the NHL. (His age also makes him ineligible for the AHL.)
Yet in true coach-speak, Vigneault didn't find that to be a problem.
"I think if we want him to stay, we're going to find a way to make it happen," Vigneault said. "Those things are going to sort themselves out."
All of the tough decisions will be made — because they have to — but if the problems are solved another question. When asked if he has a good feeling about who he was going to keep now that the preseason schedule is over, all Vigneault could do was rub his chin, wait, and smile wryly.
"I don't know," he said.
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